Refrigerating apparatuses which perform a refrigerating cycle are conventionally known. The refrigerating apparatuses are widely utilized as an air-conditioning machine for performing air-cooling/heating in a room or a cooling machine such as a refrigerator for storing foods. Among the refrigerating apparatuses, there is a refrigerating apparatus which performs air-conditioning and cold-storage/freezing as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2001-280749.
In this type of refrigerating apparatus, application-side heat exchangers provided in application-side units including cold-storage/freezing showcases and an air-conditioning indoor machine are connected in parallel to a heat-source side heat exchanger in a heat-source side unit installed outdoor by liquid side communication pipes and gas side communication pipes, respectively. This refrigerating apparatus is installed at e.g., a convenience store and the like. By installing one refrigerating apparatus, air-conditioning within a store and cooling for showcases can be performed.
Problems to be Solved
In accordance with the refrigerating apparatus, communication pipes having diameters depending on the amount of refrigerant circulated and their lengths are selected. Nevertheless, when the length of the pipes is extremely long, a pressure loss for the refrigerant becomes large and thus a refrigerating ability may be easily decreased.
In the refrigerating apparatus, a refrigerant circuit is configured so as to have two channels, i.e., a cold-storage/freezing channel and an air-conditioning channel. Two communication pipes are used for a liquid line and a gas line, respectively and thus the number of pipes becomes large. Work for connecting such pipes is complicated and the pipes may be connected in a wrong manner.
The present invention was developed in view of such problems, and an object of the present invention is to improve workability of connecting pipes and to prevent a decrease in refrigerating ability even if the length of the pipes becomes long in a refrigerating apparatus in which a plurality of application-side heat exchangers are connected to a compression mechanism and a heat-source side heat exchanger.